THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1912. WOOLLEN MILLS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10716, 29 October 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1912. WOOLLEN MILLS.

It does not matter much who the man may be. If he attempts to do a service to the community, his motives are suspected. .So with Mr J. W. McEwan, of Petone. He came to Masterton at the request of the local Chamber of Commerce, to give advice on the subject of the woollen mill industry. On his return to Petone, lie 'was anonymously assailed for having attempted to do an injury tjo the town over which he presides as Chief Magistrate. Fortunately Mr McEwan's loyalty to his homo is too wellknown to require any defence from the onslaught of an anonymous writer. All the same,- tho Mayor of Petone supplies information, in reply to the charge levelled against him, which must strengthen the movement recently instituted in Masterton in favour of the establishment of woollen mills. He says:—"l was content to talk upon the subject at Masterton, and leave the matter of taking further action in the hands of those interested, but if there is enterprise sufficient and capital obtainable to start another factory in Petone I am propared to do what I can to help the ! proposal along. There are several suitable sites available in tho district, ! enterprise and capital aloae are i wanting. It is arrant nonsense to talk about opposition to the existing factory. In view of "the fact disclosed by the returns of our imports of woollen goods there is ample room for another half doxen factories in the Dominion. Last year £887,881 worth of apparel and slops were imported. Apparel to order of residents £1285, woollen piece goods £215.006. woollen Wankets (6064 prs.) £2385, yarns £lt,4B#, kw'tt-y £184,318, *aki»g »

total value of £1,229>908. Now, lam ; aware that a fairly large ,#coportion of the itoms apparel and slops, yarns and hosiery consist? of goods made of : cotton, silk and substitutes for silk, j but even if we cut down the woollen goods under these heads to half there | still remains the large amount of j £723,650 of imported goods which J might be manufactured in the Dominion: I find in the year kook that there are ten woollen mills and hosiery factories working throughout New Zealand, the total value of goods manufactured being £464,936. Tie question before us might therefor© be.stated as follows: That as ten factories prodjaqe £404,936 worth of Moollen goods, six additional factories of the same producing capacity would be required to produce the amount imported —£723,6750. There is much more to bo said upon this question of woollen industries. For instance it is well known that cotton enters largely into the manufacture of very many of the cheaper classes "of olothirig imported. Now the late Government'in its patvernal ignorance put a very heavy prohibitive duty upon raw cotton, 4d per lb, thus preventing any N.Z. manufacturers from using a mixture "of cotton and wool. It was quite the proper thing to allow the importation of apparel, piece goods, and hosiery made of a.mixture of cotton and wool, or even cotton and shoddy at a duty of 25 per cent, but as for the raw material, oh, dear no. I think enough has been said at present to convince any reasonable person that there is room for more woollen factories in New Zealand, and that in speaking at Masierton,, upon the. .subject I was certainly not guilty of disloyalty to Petone. The mills are all doing well, and there is no rea-son to fear a little healthy competition."